Standy Uppy Now

Since my post about submissions, and other folks’ acknowledgements that they find it difficult, I’ve been thinking more about mine. I can only draw on my experience, which now is mostly procrastination and laziness.

But before I had my first acceptance, it was insecurity and lack of confidence. Although I liked my own work (mostly or enough), how could I really know if it was good enough? Art is subjective, but when you’re the producer, it’s personal. Very personal. And I’ve been rejection-phobic my whole life.

But that first acceptance showed me that a stranger liked something I wrote and that gave me the confidence to continue. An added benefit is that I handle all kinds of rejection and criticism better now; I’ve learned it’s survivable.

I still need survival strategies, however, and I use affirmations occasionally, although I don’t like the word much; it reminds me too much of Stuart Smiley (I do adore our Senator from Minnesota). My latest has been “If I do it, success will come,” but I’ve found a new one: “Standy uppy now.”

I plan to “standy uppy now” and to be a five year old again every time I face a challenge.

I’m new to blogging and I ran across this post. Such a great phrase. I’m an aspiring “novelist” and have often lacked the confidence necessary to step out and take the rejection (or acceptance) but I’m trying now :) Glad to know I’m not alone in my travels.

Dear Pamela,
I’m so glad that “Standy Uppy Now!” has struck such a chord with you and your audience. Evandro Santos would be very surprised to hear his surfing advice is floating around the blogosphere!

You have a good ear for the provocative. An interesting talent indeed!

Standy Uppy, I adore. And can’t, might not, we assumed adults be this much less serious? I hope. Galaxies are colliding right now as we speak, so just how significant do we hold ourselves? Yet neither to make less of what we rightly hold dear as well. It is personal. Do, don’t do, fretless, wouldn’t that be nice. Besides I suspect “don’t do” don’t exist!

And I’d acknowledge that I also include everything spoken here.

Does this stir the mud into clarity? But to close, and pardon the analogy, if you need, yet consider what I’ll paraphrase, this quotation here. “you are but a whisper on the lips of God… you pass on ever so soon, like a line of poetry written on the waters of creation. But yet the greatness of a whisper is that it is passed on…”

May we be content. However it is that we share ourselves, “publish” if you wish, including here, may we offer and receive the full measure of worth, who we are and express. And I wasn’t going to be serious! Darn.

I finally got that article to load. And I’m so glad for the the accented phrase because I will never forget it.

I was a five year-old when I wrote my first novel. I didn’t know it was supposed to be hard, so I just did it. Now I’ve been thinking like a feeble ninety-five year-old. So, it’s time to knock it off and standy uppy now.

I hated submitting. I shopped my novel to 20 agents before being published. Some of the agents were interested and locked up my manuscript for awhile just to end up saying, “we are going a different direction” or “thank you but we’ve decided this isn’t what we need at the moment”. I was always irritated that they got my hopes up and rejected me anyway.